DragonForce
Sonic Firestorm

THE REVIEW

Honestly, I do not consider it the band's best album; I much prefer their debut "Valley Of The Dragon." However, since its review was missing on Debaser, I am taking the opportunity primarily to start a discussion about the musical style of this delightful little band.

We all know they achieved success very quickly and, unlike other bands that had to go through several lineup and style changes before making it, DragonForce became famous right from their first demo and topped all the power metal charts, opening for Stratovarius in 2000. 'Valley Of The Damned' was the successful debut, which led to concerts, interviews, music videos, tours, and consequently two more albums; this one being reviewed and finally, 'Inhuman Rampage.' Why did DragonForce achieve such success in a short time, and more importantly, why is there such widespread negative talk about DragonForce?

To the second question, I would simply say that it's all the power metal that is now being hated because every band is a clone of some other band, but this cannot be said about DragonForce, who (answering the first question) had the brilliant idea of adding a character to their metal: that of extreme speed. This is why DragonForce are the "fast ones," those who do "extreme power," with very melodic sparkly solos. DragonForce constantly jump around, move across the stage, never staying still. At the very least, you can't say they're not original.
But the abundant technical prowess, especially in terms of the speed of drums, guitars, and keyboards, is not the only trick of their successfully curated style. There are also rare combinations of Hard Rock and "Video Game Music" (not to mention at times the perhaps excessive digital alterations to the voice). Yes, I do like DragonForce, and I like the fact that each of their songs has a good charge of expressiveness manifested in the choruses, keyboards, and the high notes of ZP Theart that exude cheerfulness, mysticism, epicness, and most importantly, melody.

The band's name says it all: "Dragon Force," and the song titles are no less. The songs always tell the usual spiel of epic battles against/with dragons, but then again, the fantasy world has become a category in itself in the vast world of metal, so there's nothing wrong if the band decides to commit to representing this context, considering they do it very well. So we have music that, however naive it may be, is well-made, the result of a mix of speed, power, and cheerfulness.
The album opens with My Spirit Will Go On, which soon becomes the anthem of DragonForce, with an alarming drum and in some ways absurd, and the two guitars, one by captain Herman Li (named the best among the young metal guitarists) and the other by Sam Totman (the live video in which, in the middle of a solo, each of them plays their guitar but with the other hand sliding on the neck of the other's guitar, of course, one of them is left-handed, is very enjoyable) are immediately the protagonists of this sweet and powerful melodic song, which, like all the other seven, does not lack spectacular solos.

Catchy choruses, and lyrics accompanied by choruses that get stuck in your head and make it impossible not to hum the song, sharp and rough riffs, a healthy dose of joy, happiness, and long instrumental pieces are the foundation of the whole tracklist. Sonic Firestorm is a sonic fury, a dive into extreme power metal, but it has a small flaw compared to its predecessor V.O.T.D because while the latter focused on highlighting different melodies, this one is a bit monotonous and repetitive, but not for that reason bad. Very technical for songs like "Fury Of The Storm" and "Fields Of The Despair" with beautiful choruses and impressive instrumental pieces, the fluid and dynamic keyboards boast a sense of "fresh delight" and synchronizations that are nothing short of perfect.
Every respectable power album always has the presence of a sweet and loaded ballad, such is the case with the beautiful Dawn Over New World, poetic and melancholic, very expressive and captivating. The atmosphere changes slightly with the next track Above The Winter Moonlight, which launches slight changes in rhythms but keeps the catchy chorus alive, but alas.... here I detect a slight plagiarism in the keyboard solo very SIMILAR to that of black diamond by Stratovarius.

It continues with another beautiful piece, in my opinion, the most beautiful of the whole album: "Soldier Of The Wasteland," the song with which I discovered the band, lasts a full ten minutes and is a whirlwind of keyboard, drum, guitar, and bass solos, a piece full of adrenaline and joy, nothing short of fantastic and with a very long instrumental piece with tempo changes. It is followed by another song titled "Prepare For War", melodic like the others and accompanied by interesting soft and light choirs; it concludes more than decently with Once In A Lifetime.
This album isn't listened to all in one go, the monotony is felt several times, and in my opinion, this is its greatest flaw. I don't want to overrate DragonForce, and I realize quite well that what they do is a bit juvenile and that what they classify as "extreme power metal" in various respects can be defined as "power metal (pushed) to the extreme."

Besides, speed is not a characteristic that makes a product of quality, but for those who want to listen to something strong, cheerful, and powerful, DragonForce's recipe is very satisfying.